Why 4 tuners on bass side and 3 on treble?

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

My 7-string string Sho-Bro has four tuners on the bass side. Since the treble strings don't pull as hard, wouldn't it distribute the stress more equally to have four on the treble side?

[Robert Murphy]

The wound strings have a smaller solid core which doesn't pull as hard as the treble strings. Check out D'Addario's web sight for string tension information.

[L. Bogue Sandberg]

It's for tuning convenience. I have two McKenna resonator guitars, a seven and an eight string. The seven is set up as you noted. The last tuner on the bass side is an easy reach whether playing standing or sitting. On the eight, my short arms make tuning the farthest treble side tuner impossible while standing, unless I pull the guitar out of playing position.

The added stress is not significant. On my guitar, I calculated about 40 psi of additional cross-neck bending stress at the nut. Given that clear mahogany has a short term bending strength north of 10,000 psi, even with a large factor of safety and an allowance for sustained stress, it shouldn't be significant. (Disclaimer: I retired from teaching structural engineering five years ago. Brain rust is a factor!)

Bogue

[John Bushouse]

Actually the tension on each string can be about the same, or higher on the high strings. Check out the tension on each string listed on this set of pedal steel E9 strings. TH tension on the high strings ranges from 28.7 - 31.2 lbs, where the lower strings range in the low to mid 20's.

http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetai ... ngs__E_9th

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	    Diameter    	         Tension    	
Item #	Note	Inches	   mm	  lbs	  kg
PL013	F#	0.0130	0.3300	31.200	14.150
PL015	D#	0.0150	0.3800	29.400	13.340
PL011	G	 0.0110	0.2790	28.100	12.750
PL014	E	 0.0140	0.3600	28.700	13.020
PL017	B	 0.0170	0.4300	23.800	10.800
PL020	G#	0.0200	0.5080	23.300	10.570
PSG026  F#	0.0260	0.6604	24.300	11.020
PSG030	E	0.0300	0.7620	26.800	12.160
PSG034	D	0.0340	0.8636	26.600	12.070
PSG038	B	0.0380	0.9652	22.900	10.390

[Darryl Hattenhauer]

Doh! I always assumed that the heavier the string the higher the tension.

[Jim Bates]

My original factory made 7 string Dobro has 4 on treble and 3 on bass. Also, the neck is a 7 string neck. So there are differences.

Thanx,
Jim